Fire tragedy 'will hurt hundreds' in tight-knit Pacific communities

Daniel Hurst

The Tongan and Samoan community south of Brisbane is in “absolute shock” after as many as 11 people died in an overnight house fire, a church leader says.

Eleven people – including up to eight children aged 3 to 17 – are feared dead after a blaze engulfed a Logan house shared by three generations of one family, in an event described by police as a “tragedy beyond all proportions’’.

Speaking from the scene in Wagensveldt St, Slacks Creek, Tribe of Judah president Terry Walker said the occupants of the house had Tongan and Samoan backgrounds.

Pastor Walker, whose Christian ministry runs a church and a food service in the area, said the Tongan and Samoan community was close-knit and the tragedy would “hurt hundreds of people”.